[JCC] social threads (now discussing an "Official" JCC social thread)

An official social thread is a fantastic idea. I think I'd post in it as opposed to the rather silly ones we get now.

 

Isn't everything in the JCC a social thread?

 

...wait...

 

~Waits~

 

(I was muddy on something and before posting, I wanted to refresh my memory. Refreshed, I can post.)

Concentration isn't what is needed. A diversity of opinion is needed, numerous outlets are needed. And more places to meet friends and cohorts - and form long friendships - are needed, not to mention that they should be open longer than a month and allowed room to breathe. We're not talking lebensraum here, some takeover of the JCC by social threads, but more options. Options, people! Why is that so terrible? What is the harm in three or five social threads? Why the strict time limit? It isn't organic to do it this way. Having post count limits per thread (5k maybe?) works better than just not giving them time to start at all. You get good conversation, it grows, it matures, and at 5k posts, it can die happily. Next thread, please!

Now why is that? Shouldn't we discuss this until coming to the decision ourselves? I don't like such raw assumption that, as soon as the mods have their say, there is no room to complain. Mods change their minds; hard to believe. The MS has to listen to the people, to what they want, or else you get disgruntled people. You don't have to agree or follow through, but, to be blunt, COMMUNICATION is the rule of the day here. It's not the Decree Forum.


An official social thread would be good. Loosening up the rules and letting more than two a month would be a step in the right direction. They won't take over as long as you keep an eye on them. Put some structure in place - post count cap could be one way of signaling a thread's end - and have a rotation, but keep it organic. Just pounding two different ones month after month - it's no good. The JCC is a giant social thread, and there used to be many more fun places to post. I don't see why there's such harsh opposition to unwinding the rules a bit.

 

"Now why is that? Shouldn't we discuss this until coming to the decision ourselves?"

Because this has been discussed fully within the last two months, in the thread linked in the first few posts. I'd suggest reading that to update yourself and then see if there is anything new you wish to add to the discussion, like the mod created social thread. There really is no point in talking in circles again so soon.

 

I'm still waiting.



Honestly, I like the idea of an "official" social thread.

I'd love to get to know all these red-named people.

Even some of the mods.

 

Now why is that? Shouldn't we discuss this until coming to the decision ourselves? I don't like such raw assumption that, as soon as the mods have their say, there is no room to complain. Mods change their minds; hard to believe. The MS has to listen to the people, to what they want, or else you get disgruntled people. You don't have to agree or follow through, but, to be blunt, COMMUNICATION is the rule of the day here. It's not the Decree Forum.

At the same time, this is an issue that has been visited repeatedly, and the decision has not changed. It was last brought up only about a month ago. Ultimately, the decision lies with the forum mods (unless the Head Admin or owners step in), and so if they all agree that the policy is not changing, this thread serves no purpose other than to build up false hopes.

Believe it or not, we do listen. However, once a decision is made, there is little point in continually rehashing the same ground over and over. If we sit here and wait for everyone to come into agreement, our grandchildren (assuming we have any) will be old and gray long before that happens. No decision is going to make everyone happy.

Kimball Kinnison

 

Au contraire, KK.

The suggestion for a moderator created/approved/official social thread isn't an idea that has been touched on yet.
At least for a few years.

 

[image=http://www.mikesjournal.com/Star%20Wars%20IV%20A%20New%20Hope.jpg]

A New Hope

Edit: Actually, I prefer the "Original". But hey... it's a pretty picture.

Edit: I still think DarthSapient is like Vader, and even Vader was redeemed.

 

Which would be why I did not lock it on sight. We are open to new ideas, but we aren't going to just let people sit here and go over the same ground over and over once a decision has been made.

Last I checked, we've only had 2 of the 4 JCC mods post in this thread. I only said that if all of them were in agreement, I would lock it.

Kimball Kinnison

 

I like RMC's idea for an official thread. I had this whole thing I was gonna say... but it doesn't really matter. Let's just say I agree with RMC.

 

I think RMC's idea of an official social thread is great.

This has and still does work in other forums and can work in the JCC. All it takes is common sense and a set of guidelines as the thread is started, yes I know that the TOS are the guidelines that we follow and this is correct, however other guidelines have been used alongsode the TOS in the past namely the none spolier policy board wide as ROTS came out.

From experience here (and I know its only been a year) social threads are the best way to get to know your fellow posters, ok I know the JCC is supposed to be that place but really is it without a Official social thread? The people I know and frequently talk to on the boards all came out of a social thread namely the GIL in 3SA.

Now I know that this may not be a great example of a thread to give given that it got out of hand as was locked, however when the line was crossed and it was locked there was an out cry for it to be re-opened, it was under a new set of guidelines and it flourished with the paticipation of not just the said forums mods (including the head admin) but also mods from other forums stopping by to chat.

This worked and perhaps only got out of line on occasion, at which point closure was threatened and the behaviour was got into check.

All I can say is that if it is tried and then it gets out of hand it gets closed and thats the end of that, but without trying how can people possibly know if it will work or not.

 

Oh great... it all falls on the n00b Mod.

Okay... IMO, the current policy on social threads has it's clear advantages. It allows multiple users the opportunity to create a social thread that, due to its limited 'life-span', does not become a high-end social clique. It allows for variety, and with the previous change in the policy from one to two threads per month, that variety has been increased. It would be nice if more users could get theirs up and running faster, yes... but there would be no chance for the threads to even have a life if they were one or two weeks long, the only other even slightly viable option for increasing the number of users that get to create one, short of flooding the forum with social threads with 2 or 3 users each.

THAT SAID, I feel the JCC is much more of a social board than the remainder of the JC forums. Would anyone ever support more than one *official* social thread in ROTS? Or over in CT? No. They are forums specifically for discussion of distinct aspects of the movies, and one social thread for the forum regulars to get to know each other outside of the standard on-topic discussion is plenty. The JCC, however, has an inherent social 'value' to every thread in it. Probably (conservatively) 75% of the threads eventually become somewhat social, with joking between users commonplace, even if it does remain 'on-topic'.

So, as others have suggested, after reading James' initial post, the thought that came to my mnd, and one I would support, would be to add one *official* forum social that is ongoing (and I'd personally believe a lock at 10 or even 20k posts would suffice) as a 'getting to know you' thread. It should be something made with the thought in mind that it should be welcoming to those that are new to the forum, regardless of if it has 500 posts, or 19,500.

With all the social aspects of the JCC (it is Jedi Council Community), I don't see where one repeating social thread would deter heavily from any other social thread, be it the montly socials, or the other group socials. The group social threads alone, along with the monthly social threads, prove it would not be detrimental to the forum itself.

Again, IMO.

 

Gotta earn your wings, ace.

10k? 20k? Wow. Large threads. I remember when the cap was 5k. *shrug*
And a getting to know you thread would be nice; something cozy, warm, happy and fun. Yes, I am the advocator of fun right now.

One extra thread wouldn't hurt at all, in my opinion. If anything it'd get people together that don't know one another. IMO.

 

Lord Bane wrote :-

Concentration isn't what is needed. A diversity of opinion is needed, numerous outlets are needed. And more places to meet friends and cohorts - and form long friendships - are needed, not to mention that they should be open longer than a month and allowed room to breathe. We're not talking lebensraum here, some takeover of the JCC by social threads, but more options. Options, people! Why is that so terrible? What is the harm in three or five social threads? Why the strict time limit? It isn't organic to do it this way. Having post count limits per thread (5k maybe?) works better than just not giving them time to start at all. You get good conversation, it grows, it matures, and at 5k posts, it can die happily. Next thread, please!

Diversity arises from changing the format every month. There's absolutely nothing stopping the same people posting in the latest version of the monthly social threads - nothing at all.

We used to run the social threads on a post count basis, however we changed the policy because it failed on two counts 1) popular threads ended way too quickly and 2) unpopular threads stuck around for a long time. Hence the month cap policy was introduced.

We've arrived at the current policy through trying things out - not randomly arriving at a policy without thought.

 

I don't have major problems with having an overall social thread... it just seems a bit weird to me. we have social threads for specific groups... and then many many threads that go for learning things about your fellow JCCers. If an overall social thread would be helpful, fine, but who's to say it will be? The reason we ahve so many social groups is that there is the same group of people that posts over and over again in the thread. they form friendships and sometimes incorporate new users in. I'm just thinking we'll make a special thread, adn everyone will love it for a month, and then it'll be the same people post it in, and ignoring posts from peopel they are not friends with. This is theoretical of course. And as far as "getting to know your fellow JCCers" or "Getting to know the n00bs"... neither of those sound like realistic goals to me. If we want to have a social thread, i vote we call it something like "The JCC Pool Party" and never have any more theme than that. a ctually i seem to remember them trying something like that in summer 02 maybe? when they started limiting social threads. At any rate, I'm willing to give it a try. Maybe we could do a test run of one or two months and then re evaluate after we see how popular and all inclusive and not just utter spam it is.

 

I don't see how there's a harm in trying. It could be bad, could be good. I don't see how it'd become uberly clique-ish, though. Groups threads and social threads, though, I consider different to an extent. Groups have a purpose, or at least, the few I'm familiar with do - helping out the JC. Social threads are just threads where people can kick back and relax.

The first "official" social thread I believe was a halloween dressup party. Social threads weren't "banned" until jedi-mind-trick became a moderator. And that wasn't until Fall of '02 at the earliest. The Pool Party was from early summer until the end (maybe until the policy kicked in). As for no more themes, I believe the stagnating it would be a bad idea. Every few months introduce a new theme and a new thread. Something to keep it different and keep it alive.

Thanks, Tracy. Who knows - it could be one of the more fun threads in years. Or it could suck. I don't foresee the latter, but I'm not always right.

 

droideka27 posted on 9/6/05 1:26pm

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And as far as "getting to know your fellow JCCers" or "Getting to know the n00bs"... neither of those sound like realistic goals to me. If we want to have a social thread, i vote we call it something like "The JCC Pool Party" and never have any more theme than that.
[hr][/blockquote]

That was actually what I meant by that. Something inviting, not necessarily something that would be a blatant WNU rip-off.

 

Would it be such a bad idea to call it something Star Wars related?

 

"The Hive of Scum and Villany" was a good thread title, or how about "The Imperial Outpost"? It could be changed once a month or so, alternating between imperial and rebel alliance.

 

OMG NO STAR WARS IN YJCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Star Wars titles could make n00bs think it's okay to talk about star wars there. and since we're "everything BUT star wars" I think it'd be a LOT better to stay away from star wars-y titles... especially when they don't really have any benefit.

 

isn't that basically what I just said?